Unseen
by Lady Lioness
Summary: She's invisible to him until... Ronon/Amelia Banks. Short one-shot


-1Author's Notes: I am very tired, this is not up to my usual standard, but she was talking in my head all day and I needed to get her to shut up. This is a one-shot and it is highly unlikely that I will write anything else for this pairing, unless future episodes inspire me to do so. Very minor spoilers for 'Quarantine,' 'Trio,' and 'The Shrine,' with a bigger spoiler for 'The Prodigal.' The main inspiration for this, however, came from a photo still posted on the Gate World website, under 'Enemy at the Gate.' I was so focused on where Keller was standing, it wasn't until I saw 'Prodigal' that I realized who it was standing next to Ronon. Comments with your thoughts.

Chuck liked to say that it was her looks that first got his attention. After all, he said, who wouldn't rather look at a pretty girl than these lugs, pointing at the predominantly male gate tech pool. She knew he wasn't quite kidding, but she also knew that he would have never entrusted her with so much responsibility if she wasn't capable. She'd arrived after the dust settled from the battle with the Replicators. The attack on the Control Tower had killed or seriously injured a fourth of the gate techs. It was funny, but the first time she set foot on Atlantis, it seemed familiar, like she'd been here before in a dream. This was where she was meant to be.

Once Chuck picked her out of the new batch of arrivals and put her through a series of drills, tests, & good natured hazing, things settled down to Chuck on the morning shift, she took the swing shift, Mark Cho took the night shift, and whoever pissed Chuck off the most that week got stuck with the graveyard.

She learned quickly that the gate techs were the invisible heroes on Atlantis. Sure, they were the ones who made sure life support was functioning, monitored security & power levels, and just all around made sure things weren't going to hell on a daily basis, but when catastrophe stuck, it was Dr. McKay and Dr. Zelanka to the rescue.

That was another thing about Atlantis, it was the great equalizer. No matter how smart you were back on your little patch of Earth, you could be the dumbest person in the room on Atlantis. Half of the scientists attended the weekly Mensa meetings, and the other half never left their labs. She consoled herself with the fact that all rivers ran through the Gate Room. The gate techs knew everything that happened on the base from who was hooking up to who was just about to crack. When she first started, though, Chuck told her solemnly that with great power comes great responsibility. You say nothing unless it comes from another source first.

It had been Nurse Ko who first broke the news that Ronon and Dr. Keller had been trapped together during the Quarantine, leading to endless speculation. As the days went by and nothing else happened, the gossip died down, but she knew it wasn't over. She was the original Invisible woman up in command, dialing the Gate, and watching them leave. When Dr. McKay, Colonel Carter, and Dr. Keller fell into that giant hole, Ronon stalked behind Colonel Sheppard the entire time, his body very tense. After the Trio was finally rescued and staggered back through the Gate, she half expected him to pounce on Dr. Keller, but he was suddenly gone. Private Brennan later reported that Dr. Keller had been seen that evening having a drink with Dr. McKay in the mess.

She decided later that Ronon was trying to take it slow or something, not realizing that his hesitation wasn't faring well against Dr. McKay's more persistent approach. After SGA-1 and Dr. Keller returned from visiting the alien shrine that cured Dr. McKay, she jokingly mentioned to Chuck that perhaps someone ought to explain to Ronon how dating rituals were conducted on Earth. He looked at her for a moment and then replied that if they don't ask, we don't tell. He went on to make an extraordinarily dirty joke, but she got his meaning. The Gate techs were the invisible watchers, their main duty to the safety of the entire bases, not meddling in the life of the individuals who lived there.

Yet something about Ronon stuck with her and perhaps she paid closer attention to the events that involved him. Chalk it up to pity, the fact that he was the hottest male on the base, whatever, but something about him drew her. She listened to the standard mission briefings before SGA-1 departed through the Gate, heard the radio transmissions from their regular check-ins, and had a front row seat when things, as they tended to do, went wrong. Sometimes she wished she could go with him, see these alien worlds for herself. Other times, she was quite happy to live vicariously through their mission reports. Still, like Chuck sometimes said, be content with what you have because wishes will bite you in the ass, her sometimes wish came true when Michael attacked and she woke to find herself sprawled on the floor, Ronon looking down at her.

She had a moment to ponder the irony of being trapped in a locked room with Ronon a la Dr. Keller, only there was also twenty other unconscious people. Then she was working on the door while he paced behind her, like a restless jungle cat. The minute the doors slid open, he was there, and the next minute after that, they were being attacked. She hung back at first, not wanting to get in his way, ceding the battle to the more experienced fighter. Yet when the second hybrid came at her, she reacted as she'd been trained, lashing out with the techniques and skills she honed over the years. Ronon finished his opponent and then gave her the courtesy of waiting until he knew she needed help before taking out hers. Slumped over, breathing heavily, he looked at her then and, with respect in his voice, said "You can fight." At that moment, she knew, she would never be invisible to him again.


End file.
